The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has responded to a controversial tweet by United States of America president Donald Trump about the land reform process in South Africa.

Trump in his usual unconventional style took to his favourite platform and said he would be instructing his foreign minister (called the Secretary of State in the US) to examine the land reform process and large-scale killing of white farmers in South Africa.

The ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte said Trump’s tweet was outrageous, ill-informed and had hurt a lot of South Africans.

Briefly.co.za gathered that Duarte said Trump’s view was fuelled in part at least by the narrative which AfriForum had been peddling in America and other overseas countries.

Duarte added that it was unfortunate that a diplomatic row was brewing between South Africa and the US which had previously enjoyed good trade and diplomatic relations.

eNCA.com reported that Duarte did not pull punches when she apportioned blame for the incident. She said blatant lies and untruths about land reform being peddled by AfriForum and the Democratic Alliance in overseas markets had led to Trump’s ill-informed tweet.

Duarte said the ANC remained committed to keeping a stable and beneficial relationship with the US government.

South Africa’s foreign affairs minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the incident was unfortunate and according to TimesLive.co.za she would meet with the US Ambassador to seek clarity about the matter.

Former ANC national spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said Trump's tweet was further degrading the US's international standing and that the the country was in danger of becoming the laughing stock of the intertnational community.

Kodwa added that Trump's tweets had eroded his own personal standing and the not many people in the world took what he said or tweeted seriously anymore.

Meanwhile, AfriForum has welcomed the tweet and said it brought hope not only to South African farmers and property owners but to all South Africans.

Trump's communications team was quick to point out that he had only been expressing concern about South Africa and that the US president did not believe the country would go down the same path as Zimbabwe did when Robert Mugabe enacted his sweeping land reform policies.

Trump's administration noted that unlike Zimbabwe, South Africa had not embarked on limiting civil liberties or the freedom of the media which made it unlikely that South Africa would collapse in the same manner as Zimbabwe did.

Trump has a history of using Twitter to inflame not only his political and ideological opponents but has at various times also drawn exasperation from his allies and own administration for his rantings on the social media platform.